Giving the Devil His Due: The Art of Gary Kelley

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Giving the Devil His Due: The Art of Gary Kelley

Join us this fall for the exhibition Giving the Devil His Due: The Art of Gary Kelley, a visual exploration in drawings and monotypes of the tortured souls of two legendary musicians: the 19th century violinist and guitarist Nicolò Paganini and his 20th century counterpart, blues guitar legend Robert Johnson.

Though their lives were divided by a century, both shared a restless intellectual and emotional urge to master their instruments and, according to legend, sold their souls to the devil to achieve perfection! Similarly possessed by an intellectual urge, artist and music lover Gary Kelley explores these parallel lives in the artwork he created for two award winning books Dark Fiddler, the life and legend of Nicolò Paganini and Black Cat Bone, the life of blues legend Robert Johnson. Inspired by the expressionist artwork of Egon Schiele and the bold silhouettes of Haitian metal work, Kelley’s images bring these two mythical stories to life in bold and dramatic ways. Though never intended as companion books, illustrations from each will be exhibited together for the first time. The exhibition will also include new works to connect the disparate lives of their subjects extending the stories from the printed page directly to the museum’s wall.